Ticket to Write: Buffalo Gap more than just history

Steve Stephens More Content Now

Friday

Jun 22, 2018 at 9:25 AMJun 22, 2018 at 9:25 AM

The buffalo are mostly gone from the Great Plains.

But just south of Abilene, Texas, the town of Buffalo Gap lives on.

Once the Taylor County seat (before being supplanted by Abilene), Buffalo Gap is a tiny village with a lot of history. Much of that history is on display at the Taylor County History Center, a collection of 20 historic frontier buildings with artifacts and exhibits illustrating the county’s past.

At the heart of the history center is the old Taylor County Courthouse, a two-story stone structure that’s stark but pretty, in the way that the wide open prairie is stark but pretty. The courthouse is one of just two of the center’s buildings on its original site. The rest have been moved to the museum from other nearby locations.

A local lawyer bought the courthouse in 1956 and turned it into his own “Ernie Wilson Museum of the Wild West.”

In 1977, a couple bought the museum and brought in more historic buildings. Then in 1999, a local nonprofit group took over the site and operation.

Today, visitors will see the courthouse and a cabin from the 1880s; a doctor’s office, barbershop and railroad depot from the 1900s; and a schoolhouse, post office, print shop and gas station from the 1920s, among other buildings. The site also houses an art gallery and a general store/souvenir shop.

But there’s more to Buffalo Gap than history.

I first heard tell of Perini Ranch Steakhouse when I was nowhere near the town.

“It’s well worth the drive,” a winery owner in San Angelo, 90 miles away, told me when I was asking for dinner suggestions.

I didn’t make it until lunch the next day, but I was certainly happy I did.

I first stopped to visit Barbadilla, “the world’s largest armadillo,” a cute statue next to the long ranch driveway. I also waved to the longhorn cattle that came up to the fence as if looking for a handout, but I didn’t want to get too close, physically or emotionally. (I wondered, a bit nervously, if one of the friendly creatures was destined to be somebody’s lunch.)

Hominy has been the one food that I have refused to eat since childhood. But my new friend at the winery had highly recommended Perini’s version. The baked dish, with bacon and cheddar and infused with a touch of green chili heat, was superb and certainly changed my least-favorite-food rankings. (Noresore — transparent baby eels — and canned tomato soup are now vying for the top spot.)

And when my friendly waitress informed me that the gentle longhorns I saw grazing near the dining lodge were for petting, not eating, my experience was complete.— Steve Stephens can be reached at sstephens@dispatch.com or on Twitter @SteveStephens.